Examining state-civil society relationships within the context of social movements is vital for understanding the ways in which movements function at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels—both independently and in relation to the state. This thesis...

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is the leading cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide. Over the course of its life cycle in vivo, Mtb is exposed to a plethora of environmental stress conditions. Temporal...

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 15% of all diagnosed breast cancers nationally and affects African-American women 3 times more likely than any other ethnic group. Locally, African-American women in the New Orleans area see higher...

Scholars have often viewed nation and diaspora as opposing concepts. Such a binary perception is not useful for the establishment of a harmonious nation where multi-diasporic groups are compelled to cohabit. This study attempts to reconcile nation...

This thesis explores how the works of three contemporary women writers “write back” to the silences in the dominant historical narratives--made at various stages of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s notion of the production of history and in varying...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding 18-22 long RNAs, which act as key mediators in many cellular processes involved in tumorigenesis including proliferation, differentiation, invasion, and apoptosis. miRNAs repress gene expression by inhibiting...

"Not My Father's Son" explores a new generation of white southern sons in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century whose resistance to the problematic construction of masculinity and the violence needed to sustain it allows them both the...

Autosomal Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) is a common genetic disorder with an incidence of 1 in 500 to 1 in 1000. Most of the ADPKD cases are due to mutations in the Polycystic Kidney Disease-1 gene (PKD1). The PKD1 gene product; Polycystin 1,...